Caci Larsen

I GOT A JOB!!!

2011-06-13T00:19:00.001-07:00

For all of you who don't know yet, I graduated from Utah State University a few weeks ago in Elementary Education. About a day after I graduated, I drove down to Price for an interview! Mind you.... Price is not close to Logan... whatsoever. The Buick was not doing so hot, so they even had to help me fix my car down there. The interview went very well, and they offered me the job about five minutes after I left! WAHOO! Well after a lot of prayer and direction from people that I love.... I took the job as a third grade teacher at Wellington Elementary in a small town near price! I am so excited to teach these bright young children. Finally I can use my own ideas and techniques when I teach ;) Seriously though, I am so looking forward to this new adventure that the Lord has for me. I am nervous of course, but know that I can do it because of my excellent training. I received my first class list today which consists of 27 students. I am looking forward to meeting every single one of them. Ill keep you posted on the new updates :).

STUDENT TEACHING

2011-01-26T18:19:00.000-08:00

Three weeks in and i'm still kickin ;) In all seriousness though, I love the school that I am working at. They are so friendly and kind, but most importantly they are teaching me what I need to know to be thrust into the world of education in three months. I am in a second grade class right now, and I LOVE it. The kids are so energetic, so the challenge for me is directing that energy to positive educational venues. I have had some very cool experiences such as participating in an I.E.P, working with a seasoned teacher, writing lessons around what I want to do (believe it or not, some student teachers are much more limited that I have been), and the list goes on-and-on. Right now, I am teaching for an hour of the day, but next week will move up to three hours. I am a little nervous about that, but I am definitely ready to take on the challenge. I am so lucky to be in a school close to my apartment. I am literally only three minutes away which definitely helps on transportation cost. I shall keep ya updated!

Roomate Pictures...

2010-12-22T08:02:00.000-08:00

2010-12-22T07:57:00.000-08:00

This fall my roomies and I decided to take pictures because it was so beautiful outside. We went on a serious picture taking spree, so I thought I would share a few of the pictures we ended up taking. I have been so blessed to live with these girls. They are all strong amazing women, and I have learned so much from their examples.

Mormon.org

2010-11-13T11:49:00.000-08:00

If you look at my account today, you will probably not see anything because it has to be previewed before they publish it. But the link is the pink button that says my faith. (Right below)

2010-11-13T11:46:00.000-08:00

I recently created an account on mormon.org. I encourage you to read it if you would like, and make your own account. This is a testimony builder to me to see so many people who love the gospel so much.

2010-06-01T20:01:00.000-07:00

Shantel and I sitting at the book at
Betty's wedding. Cuttest book
girls ever ;)!!!

Betty Jo and Garret Heaps

Kylee and Nathan Behunin

Finally an update!

2010-06-01T19:44:00.000-07:00

OKAY OKAY! Linda Burt and my mother better be happy haha. The other day we were sitting around the kitchen table and Linda blurts out "You have the boringest blog ever!" If my aunt is saying that it must be true. We know the Burts are blunt :) Well! life has spiced up a bit! Happy Day!
Last semester both of my roomates got engaged, and we married one right after the other. Kylee on the seventh and Betty Jo on the eighth. Both weddings were beautiful, and I really miss my roomates. But we all know how roomates are when they are engaged ;) They are basically non-existant. But we love them anyways :)
I am now dating someone!!! wahoo... His name is Matt Howes, and he is amazing. We met a year ago the first week I moved to Logan. We both went to the wrong ward prayer and ended up in the same "get to know you" group. I thought he was pretty dreamy... but he obviously didn't have interest in me (he had only been home from the mission for three or four days). I got a job, and started working at Elements, and he happened to be the BEST MAN at one of the weddings I was serving at. He stuck around and got my number after everyone had left :) And we went on a date a week later. It's been off and on dating for a year, but we are officially official right now. So it's kinda fun :) Anyways... I knew some of you would be wondering about that, and I will post some pictures of him later.

SUMMER???

2010-05-18T10:05:00.000-07:00

Never in my life have I taken summer classes, but I have the privilidge of taking them this year!!! I am taking a Elementary Music class, Family Finance, and yoga, plus my preschool student teaching for two months. Busy Busy... but it's fun. I have recently moved into a new apartment called Maple Valley, and it's only ten times bigger than my last apartment. I love the space, and my roomates. They are darling... Lots of fun updates to come this summer... I hope anyways.

Spice Things UP!!!

2010-04-29T11:05:00.000-07:00

For anyone who has been reading my blogs lately... I have been in a technology class that we blog about every week. That is why they have been so interesting for you to read haha.. Linda mentioned that I was a boring blogger..... NO WORRIES folks I will spice things up shortly. Summer is coming along with much more exciting posts.

Last Day of Class!

2010-04-26T09:13:00.001-07:00

Well, finals are approaching, and I am definitely excited for summer. This class has been very beneficial to me in introducing me to the available technology for my future classroom. Today I definitely learned more than anything that technology can be so frustrating. This is a great thing to learn when it's the last day of class and you have a deadline and nothing is working. This will happen in my classrooms, and I need to be able to improvise on a whim. Some of the highlights of the semester include
* ia.usu.edu (this website is amazing, and I WILL use it in the future for my classes)
*google docs and blogging (I think that this is something I will do to update the parents of my students on what is happening weekly. It's also a great way for them to respond to me if they have questions or comments on what is happening)
*various websites (things like spellingcity.com and a few math sites will be beneficial to my students)
*how to get and implement technology into my classroom (grants are a great way to get money for technology)
These are only a few of the things we have learned this semester, but they are the ones that have stuck in my mind.
HAVE A GREAT SUMMER EVERYONE!!!

Edith Bowen Visit

2010-04-19T08:40:00.001-07:00

We had the opportunity to take a little field trip to Edith Bowen today and learn about how Mr. Johnson incorporates technology into the classroom. He started by showing us his full set of 30 IPods, one for every student in the classroom. He got these through a grant from the government. The IPods are very useful for the children to use when reading books. They have over 200 books on each IPod, and their collection is constantly growing. He mentioned that right now they are using the IPods as an experimental factor to see how children learn best. They are testing children who only listen to the IPods, listen to the IPod and read along in a book, just read the book, and listen to the IPod while doing other things. I believe that children need to read along in order to get the continuing practice of reading. My sister learned to read like that, and now she is an excellent reader. She would listen to books on tape and follow along in the books. I would like to get a set of Ipods for my classroom and have them in listening centers. He showed us a hook up that you could put six sets of headphones to one IPod. That is amazing to me, and I will definitely use this. He also showed us his 13 regular computers that he has for the classroom. He has them working on spellingcity.com and a fun math facts site. This is so interactive for the children. He also has the children working on the classroom website. I love the website idea where he updates class schedules and calendar events, along with things the children should be practicing and working on at home. I definitely want to incorporate this into my classroom because it is a such a great technological tool.
In class we did four website evaluations. This is an important skill because anybody can put information on the internet, but the validity is not accurate. It is important to check many different venues to make sure that the website is appropriate for what you use in the classroom.

Instructional Architect and MORE!!!

2010-04-12T08:10:00.000-07:00

Today we had a guest lecturer who taught us how to use the instructional architect website. This website is literally so helpful. We all made an account on the website which we can use for many years to come. This website is full of lesson plans and ideas to implement into your lessons. I made my own lesson on graphing and saved it to my personal archives. This is a great way to involve the children on the web getting them involved in technology. I will use this website to:
*Create my own lesson plans
*Find resources for my lessons
*Create my own archives of resources
*Save videos pictures and other lesson aids
*Look at other lessons made by teachers all over the world.
She also introduced us to www.teachertube.com which is a very helpful sight. This sight is specifically for teachers to use videos, pictues, and clips that are appropriate for school use. This will definitely come in handy when teaching things like science, history, and other subjects like that.
We made our own lesson plan and walked through the steps of how to do so. I feel like I learned a lot that will assist me as a teacher.

WebQuest Experience!!!

2010-04-05T08:08:00.000-07:00

WebQuest is a gem of a site! I enjoyed looking through this website and I think this could be very beneficial to me as a teacher. There are thousands of ideas for lessons for every subject matter and age group. It is easy to use where you simply type in a subject matter and then it narrows everything down for you. In my classroom, I can use lessons from this site, but I can also have the children actually get on do this themselves if you have enough computers for every child. You can use direct links to get the children to the site you want. I personally think this is a great site for beginning teachers when they are trying to figure out new ideas and lesson plans. I think I will use this mostly to spur ideas for things I can do in my own classroom. The idea of doing a webquest excites me because the children need to learn how to research and learn things on the web. This is a great practice for them, and it's available for them to work as young as kindergarten.

March 29th Virtual World

2010-03-29T08:12:00.000-07:00

Wow, this is exciting. We had a guest teacher today that taught us how to get an account and use the virtual world or the "second world." It took quite a while to get the class going because it was hard to get everyone logged on to the science sim. But when it happened we were able to chat with each other and roam around the area that was built. I do not think I will ever use this in my classroom. But, if I were to use it in my class, I would simply use it to show them some cool things. The teacher mentioned that you could use it to show them an art gallery or a simulation of what a castle would look like or different things like that. I feel like this would take too much time out of my teaching, but if it was modified and tweaked, I would consider using it in my classroom. But, as of now, I do not feel like this is useful for the elementary classrooms.

3/8/2010 Google Form

2010-03-08T07:58:00.000-08:00

Today we learner a little more about our possibilities on google! Like I mentioned earlier, google is constantly amazing me! We got familiar with googleform today. This is simply a function where we can create a survey and send it to people of our choices. Also we can post this survey on blogs and other websites. We get an email of the results of the quiz which is very cool. This can be used in the classroom to
* Send a get to know you survey
*Formulate an application from home for a math assignment
*Teach them how to find information and put it into a graph form.
*Send home a practice test for the topics they will be tested on that week.
*Assessment to see if they understand what you are teaching.
*Any kind of practice examination.
I think this is a very useful and can be used in many different ways for my classroom.

First Survey!!! Go ahead and take it :)

2010-03-08T07:39:00.000-08:00

https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dEhkWWZsbGZXam0ydExJREVVN01lY2c6MA

Spreadsheet and more!

2010-03-01T07:28:00.000-08:00

Our group presentations today were very helpful. The first group that presented gave us a website they had found full of clever lesson plans and teacher help. It's www. curriki.org. USE IT!
We are practicing our skills on excell today which is always a fun challenge. NOT.... I know that excel is very important, but it is NOT user friendly, and I am not feeling like it is helpful right now, but i'm sure I will later in life. FRUSTRATING :) By the way.. this can be used in so many ways. Its useful for gradebooks more than anything, so hopefully my Excel skills get better.

MS WORD and GOOGLE DOC

2010-02-22T07:46:00.000-08:00

Who knew! Google is amazing. I am finding out so many incredible aspects of google that I just want to highlight a few.
-E-mail
-Blogging
-Google Docs
-and many other things I need not mention right now.
Today we talked about google docs. This is a program created by google that is opposite from emailing documents. When you e-mail documents there are several copies made and often these copies are confused! Google docs is where you have a document and you can allow others to edit the document or simply view the document. This can be helpful in a classroom! Teachers can create grade charts and share them over google docs. They can also send out newsletters and have someone edit them.
Microsoft Word is an amazing tool that needs to be used in the classroom. Children are now learning how to type years before our generation did. They can learn how to express language and write their thoughts down. This can be helpful for correcting grammar and spelling. We used it to write a progressive story where each child puts one sentence on each computer and forms a unique story. This can be a fun way for the children to express themselves through writing in a fun way.

2010-02-16T12:15:00.000-08:00

2010-02-16T08:11:00.000-08:00

2nd post for Feb 8, 2010

2010-02-08T08:27:00.000-08:00

I'm posting again! Sorry! I just have so much to say about this technology in the YETC. The YETC is the oncampus open lab specifically for students in the teaching programs. There is two mac labs and a PC lab! In our presentation today, the teacher showed us some resources that we can get while we are still students here. He had videos of all the reading rainbow, magic school buss, and books. He has various music clips and audio files that we can also have if we come and download them here. I think i'm going to go right out and buy a hard drive today!!! Can't pass this opportunity up! The technology he used can be used to enhance lessons and learning in the classroom. One of my favorite sites was the spellingcity.com because children can play games with their weekly spelling words, be tested, and even simply practice their words. This can be used as a center in your classroom and is basically like having another teacher there. I searched many math sites, and there are many sites that have math games and practice sessions that you can use in your class. There are also sites that you can form worksheets on. There are so many amazing resources for teachers.... thank heavens because we need all the help we can get.

Technology!

2010-02-08T08:14:00.000-08:00

February 8, 2010
I had no idea how many incredible sites are available for teachers in the world. We got to explore various sights today. I feel like what we were introduced to is only the tip of the iceberg to what we can use and find. For you mothers and teachers here are some websites that will be beneficial to you.
-spellingcity.com
-storyonline.net
-kiddierecords.com
-teacherlink.ed.usu.edu
These are just a few of the websites we were introduced to. Check them out!! The guy who taught our class today showed us how so many different ways to implement technology. This is exciting for sure.

First Official Post!

2010-02-01T13:11:00.000-08:00

This is my first post! How exciting... Thanks to Chelsee Brown I have finally figured out how to work this program. Man she is great. This class is going to be a good learning experience for those of us who are technologically challenged :)